What determines the speed of the technology diffusion? What are the consequences of diffusion? This paper presents a model to address these questions. Skilled machine-users adopt a new technology first, while unskilled users wait until machines become more reliable and accessible. The quality...

The market for information and communication technologies is changing rapidly. Products and applications that used to be completely separate are becoming almost interchangeable. Sweeping change lies ahead in voice and data telephony: the fixed-line telephone network faces new competition from...

It became clear early on that UMTS, also known as 3G (third-generation mobile phone systems), would be a key technology for profitable markets of the future. However UMTS technology offers some major advantages that can be demonstrated under laboratory conditions but which it will not be...

Efficient broadband technologies such as DSL, fibre, cable modem, powerline communications, UMTS, WLAN or WiMax are powerful locational factors for an economy. Europe in particular should promote broadband communication further to tap into its growth potential. But given the prevailing ownership...

The current problems in mobile telephony are leading critics to make overly pessimistic predictions that 3G – the third-generation mobile phone system – will never become profitable. However, the resulting calls not to introduce 3G and instead directly back alternative wireless technologies...

We present a three-sector general equilibrium model with an informal sector, which produces an intermediary for the formal sector, and analyze the effects of different policies on the environmental standard and welfare of the economy. Since the informal manufacturing sector creates pollution,...

The paper investigates the existence and extent of economies of scale in depository and settlement systems. Evidence from 16 settlement institutions across different regions for the years 1993–2000 indicates the existence of significant economies of scale. The degree of such economies,...

The paper investigates the existence and extent of economies of scale in depository and settlement systems. Evidence from 16 settlement institutions across different regions for the years 1993–2000 indicates the existence of significant economies of scale. The degree of such economies,...

Many public policy decisions require analytical and empirical knowledge concerning the size, growth, causes and consequences of the ‘underground economy”. This paper seeks to clarify the meaning of underground activity, updates various discrepancy and fiscal estimates of its size and growth,...

Recent research on the unobserved economy suggests that the phenomenon has important implications for both macroeconomic policy and public finance. Attention is focused on the public finance implications by developing a simple macro model from which it is possible to derive a Laffer curve. The...